Los Angeles, CA – October 31, 2017 – The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA|LA) announced the winners of its prestigious 2017 Design Awards, Monday night, October 30, 2017, during an evening that celebrated design excellence, Los Angeles-based architects and architecture, and the contribution that designers offer the region.

“As the voice of architects in Los Angeles, the AIA|LA is delighted to share these examples of design excellence with our greater community. Though each project receiving a design award is different, all demonstrate the possibilities that architects bring to our area: design that benefits individual lives and our society as a whole,” noted Executive Director Carlo Caccavale, Hon. AIA|LA.

SCROLL DOWN FOR WINNERS AND WINNER SLIDE SHOWS IN ALL CATEGORIES: DESIGN AWARDS, NEXT LA AWARDS, COTE LA AWARDS

Individual juries with expertise particular to the given program area, evaluate and select award winners in the first three programs. The fourth group of honorees, the Presidential Honorees, previously announced on August 17 and bestowed at the ceremony, was chosen by the 2017 AIA|LA President Douglas Teiger, AIA, and the 2017 AIA|LA Board of Directors. (Mr. Teiger, the Managing Principal of Abramson Teiger Architects, has headed and contributed to numerous AIA|LA initiatives for over a decade.)

The AIA|LA Design Awards honor design excellence by noting some of the most significant completed projects in the country at this time. The caliber of work submitted and volume of submissions make the program amongst the most competitive that AIA chapters host.

Excellence in design of projects that are as yet unbuilt or are-still-to-be-completed-commissions are recognized through the AIA|LA Next LA awards program. While, AIA|LA COTE award (Committee for the Environment, AIA|LA chapter) recipients are recognized for demonstrable achievement in the implementation of sustainability features. These winning projects were noted for performance, systems integration and other key elements in addition to design.

Design Award, Next LA and COTE LA awards are given in three classifications: Honor, Merit and Citation, with Honor being the highest category.
Completed projects, located anywhere, that are designed by AIA members from firms based in the LA area, and architecture constructed in Los Angeles by any AIA member, no matter their base of operations, are eligible for submission for Design Awards.

For high quality images of winners and for more information about the event, please call 310.994.1423 or email tibby@aialosangeles.org

In addition to the juried awards program, 2017 Presidential Honorees were celebrated during the course of the evening. Honorees are individuals, firms or companies who have re-defined the possibilities of design, produced meaningful bodies-of-work in an overall context, or contributed significantly to the profession and its practitioners.

“This distinguished group of architects, and advocates on behalf of design, demonstrate the best our profession offers. These are individuals who inspire those within the field and beyond,” noted AIA|LA President Douglas Teiger, AIA.

Over six hundred attendees—architects, designers, sponsors, design aficionados, friends + family—enjoyed the formal proceedings followed by a packed and convivial Apres Party, first in the Broad Stage then throughout the surrounding plaza.

This year’s Design Awards’ committee arranged for several new DA features to entertain, celebrate and take home. Bright buttons declaring different AIA Core Values: Sustainability, Diversity, Equity, and Design Excellence, in bright pink, orange, yellow and blues were a nod to the chapter’s year long initiatives to catalyze positive change in areas important to membership.

Arrivals were greeted with an exhibition of over three-hundred images, inset into the plaza —the dazzling entries into the Design Awards competition, itself.

Guests were feted with dinner and libations and partook in a photo booth, grabbing snaps with longtime and new friends. While the Design Awards are held to recognize the tremendous effort and serious work that goes into realizing a piece of architecture, the party that hosts them is one of revelry and engagement. #ArchitectsNightOut.